New Ulm weekly review., 1887-11-16
IN TIE GAS coUNTR9E.

A Visit to the Wonderful Natural
Gas Wells of Northern ohio--The
Growth OF Findiay.
! A correspondent Of the Detroit Free
Press writes long letter from Findlav,
o., descriptive OF the "Gas Countrie"
OF Northern Ohio, from which the fol.
lowing is extracted:
Here in the heart Of the ''gas coun-
trie" seems an appro opriate placefrom
which to say something OF the won
derful new gift Of nature, which ap-
parently solves some OF the most
serious problems of the time, by FUR
nishing heat, light and power three
of the great essentials OF life at the
cost of tapping the surface OF the
earth. I have been astonished at the
revolution that gas has wrought in
the conditions of industry and pop
ulation in Northwestern Ohio
within the sixteen months
since it was introduced.
AS a practical economic element, and
I think it only in the line OF the mis-
sionary duty of the newspaper man
to describe natural gas and outline
it's work.
The Northwestern Ohio gas belt is
certain to develop the most remark
able concentration ofindustries on the
continent.
It may be we'll to define, at the out
set, the gas territory OF Ohio as it is
now developed. A strip of about ten
miles in width, beginning near the
southerIy line Of Hancock County near
where it touches the boundaries of
Hardin and Wyandotte Counties,
and extending almost due north to
Maumee. Lucas County, eight miles
south of Toledo. may be roughly &C.
cepted as it's definition. There is an
interval between Bowling Green and
Waterville where the wells are not so
strong, and where the gas seems not
to underline the surface of all points,
but there are now thlrtv-three produc-
ing wells in the district, giving forth
nearly 16O,OOO,OOO cubic feet of gas
daily, and through large portion of
its extent gas may be surely obtained
by drilling to an average depth of
!, 200 feet.
The impression made upon the cas-
ual investigator is that it is very un.
likely that the limit of the gas terri
tory has been reached, any more than
that OF the oil territory OF Pennsy-
vania was defined in the early days OF
the excitement
Still, one who has never seen natur-
al gas in use has a decidedly new SEN
sation. Going to the comfortablea and
cosy Madison House-a hotel so near
ly of the family order that bache-
lor feels like an outer barbarian-on
beastly day, l ordered O. fire in my
room. The elevator boy produced
key from his pocket, turned on the
gas, lighted it, and, leaving the key in
my possession, told ME that I could
suit myself as to allowing it to burn
Or turning it off.
l suited myself. In twenty minutes
the broken fire brick with which the
crate was filled was aglow with heat.
I turned the gas low enough to cut off
the blue flame, and the most expert
enced person would have supposed
the fire to be OF coal.
The first experience of your CORE
spondent in the actual presence of the
great natural agent came upon a trip
to Maumee, which is, at present, the
mOtherly limit of the developed gas
territory.
Amonth ago Maumee was a coun-
try town OF l, 200 inhabitants, with
out an ambition beyond it's limits.
Now. while it has had no time tc
greatly increase and the prospect Of
it's future is known only to a
chosen few, it has Incorporated
street car lines, telephone
and water companies and an electric
light company. 1t has dedicated pub
lie parks and broad new streets; it has
resolved to give gas and land free
to all manufacturing establishments
locating there; real estate Offices are
being opened, a fine, large ten pot glass
works is already building and will
shortly be in operation, and many
other factories, although the idea is
SO new, are Figuring" to come in.
My first experience in the way Of In
innate relationship with gas well,
was on stormy night when party
OF real estate.gas and newspaper men,
accompanied by several ladies, after q
hearty supper at Maumee, took a
train for Waterville, four miles
south, which was reached soon alter
5 O'Clock. AS we drew near a light was
seen dancing IN the sky like an enor-
nous will.o'-the-wisp, and after turn
ing down from the road, through an
orchard, it was seen that the light
was flaming and tossing from astand-
pipe about fifty feet high which arose
from a rude wooden shanty over the
we'll.
After the spectators had been for
five minutes on the ground, the light
was extinguished and the biackness Of
Erebus fell upon the earth. It was
said that this extinction was ac-
cidental, but it left Dom for the sus-
picion that those having the matter
in charge did it deliberately, to make
more effective the splendid coup de